After introducing the User Account Control in Windows Vista, Microsoft increased the security of its core system files by hardening its Effective Permissions. Most times,  to replace a System file, rename a System folder or a folder under the root C drive, you have to take ownership of the file or folder.

With the release of Windows 8 Microsoft has changed the way to Take Ownership a bit. On Windows 7, it is pretty much the same as what we saw in the pervious versions of Windows. There isn’t much difference even now - just that the screen has changed a bit and the way we take control has been changed; but the command line still remain the same. For instance on Windows 7 you have a Owner tab.

We click on Edit, enter the Object name (Administrators or you Windows user name) or select your username from the list, and click OK to make changes.

But on Windows 8 Microsoft has removed the Owner tab and moved it to the top. See the following screenshot.

Also, under the Permission tab, when you add a new object, you have two different views - one, the Basic permissions and other one is Advanced permissions. Here is a screenshot of the Advanced permissions window.

How to Take Ownership on Windows 8

Now I’ll show you how to Take Ownership on Windows 8 Pro.

Step 1:

Right-click on the file or folder and go to Properties Windows. Under Properties click on “Security” Tab.

Step 2:

Now you can see in the above screenshot, you don’t have any permission to change it. In such cases you need to Take Ownership of the file or folder. To do so click on “Advanced”.

Step 3:

Next, in the windows that appears, you have to click on “Change” and enter the object name.

I typed in my Windows username and click “OK”. Now you will be able to see that the owner has changed to Shyam Sasindran.

Click on “Replace owner on subcontainers and object” and click Apply.

Once you click on Apply, you’ll see this warning message. Click on Yes to proceed.

Now you will need to click “OK” twice.

Next again click on Advanced.

Step 4:

Now under the Advanced permissions, you will see a change and you will see the option to add Multiple Objects

To add multiple object and to inherit permission you can click on “Change Permissions”.

To inherit permissions, click on “Enable inheritance”. To add a new object click on “Add” and click on “Select a Principal” and type in the Object name.

Now you can enable the Basic Permission. If you want to enable advanced permission, click on “Show advance permissions”.

Once you complete everything, click OK and close the Window.

You should be able to access that particular file or folder. Be careful when you alter the permission for System file or folder it may cause serious damage to your system and compromise security. So please create a system restore point first and then proceed with caution.

How to troubleshoot File and Folder Permission Issues in Windows may also interest you.